Hear My Cry
by CatchingWind
Summary: Danny Fenton had always dreamed about what his sixteenth birthday would be like. However, nobody expected him to disappear on that day. One year after the fact, his loved ones receive a sign that may prove he's still alive. But is he really? And if he is, what exactly did he disappear for? Watch the mystery of the missing ghost boy unravel before your very eyes...
1. Prologue: Disappear

Danny Fenton had always dreamed about what his sixteenth birthday would be like: driving in his very own sports car, kissing the girl of his dreams, staying out all night with his two best friends.

Nobody ever expected him to disappear.

The surprise party preparation went off without a hitch. In fact, it couldn't have gone smoother. Jack and Maddie were responsible for getting the house decorated and gathering the food. Sam and Tucker were in charge of the gifts. And Jazz had the most important job of all: getting Danny home when the setup was complete.

She'd dragged him all across the mall to all of her favorite book and clothing stores. He was forced to sit and wait patiently (save for the occasional ghost attack) as she feinted fawning over every other thing she saw.

As the day passed on, she felt guiltier and guiltier for every store he accompanied her to. He never complained once and even offered his sincere opinion when she asked him if she thought the book sounded interesting or if the skirt was too short in length. But he seemed lost in thought, somber and pensive all day long.

It got to the point where she simply handed him two twenties and told him to go and buy something for himself. At that point, he'd done something that had completely thrown her off guard. He threw his arms around her neck and held onto her tight, whispering in her ear, "Thank you, Jazz." He walked away with a sad smile on his face, looking at her with his gorgeous, big blue eyes.

Little did she know that she would be the last one to see him alive.

No less than six minutes later, she received the call from Tucker, announcing that all was set and that Danny could be brought home. She told him flippantly that he'd taken off for awhile and that she would simply text him that she'd gone ahead and left. After all, a boy with the ability to fly didn't need a ride home.

And so it was that she arrived home, and his five loved ones gathered in a dark corner of the living room. They waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited even longer.

By ten o'clock at night, Maddie had grown especially worried. She dialed his cell phone number, knowing it by heart, but it rang once, twice, three times and was never picked up.

Four days later, the police would find it sitting on the top shelf of Valerie Gray's locker. But that's another detail for another time.

Eventually, at one in the morning (which was past Amity Park's set curfew, might I add), Maddie did call the police and reported her son missing. They gave her the standard, frank response that he had to be missing for more than twenty-four hours before they would file a missing child report.

By two days after Danny's disappearance, the entire city was on a full lookout for the Fenton boy.

By three days, the police had invaded the Fenton Works and scoured Danny's room for any clues.

By six days, they'd questioned almost everyone that had ever come in major contact with the teenager. Some of those people provided very condemning information, but the authoress is sorry to say that, much like with his phone, is another detail for another time.

By seven days, people had begun to notice the distinct lack of ghost attacks. They also seemed to be catching onto the fact that Danny Phantom had also mysteriously disappeared.

By two weeks, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker resigned to last resorts: searching the Ghost Zone for their beloved. They prepared for a long, tedious expedition only to open the portal doors and find that the entire entrance was blocked by a dark void.

By three and a half weeks, the police thought they'd found a kidnapper, a colleague of Vlad Masters by the name of S. Lurckor. The name, however, was phony, and the cops brought Mayor Masters in for questioning again. He was released one day later for the lack of hard evidence.

Two days after the scandal, Danny's closest friends found themselves on the mayor's doorstep with an interrogation of their own. After a very stressful five hours of questions, threats, and much of the like, the three left with no more than what they'd started with, other than the knowledge that Vlad swore he had no idea what happened to the boy and that he had not been allowed into the Ghost Zone ever since the day Danny disappeared.

By one month after Jazz's last sighting of him, most of the city had given up in the search. Five people, plus a few other people somewhat close to the missing, continued their search without lenience.

By two months, magazines and newspapers had noticed the drastic drop in ghost attacks and sent representatives to investigate. Jack and Maddie Fenton were asked to speak about their thoughts about the ghost boy's disappearance and the subsequent shortage of hauntings, of course, them being the leading paranormal experts in the country.

They denied the request.

By three months, Amity Park had officially dropped off of the map once more, no longer being a tourist attraction. At that same time, the kids of Casper High held a candlelight vigil for Daniel Fenton. A handful of kids did not attend, but releasing their names at this time would detract from this tale. Therefore, I must withhold the information until a later time.

Exactly four months after Danny's sixteenth birthday, the police relented in their search for him and marked down his status as "presumed dead." Though some were adamant to believe it at first, the reality of the situation wore into them eventually.

Jasmine Fenton, Samantha Manson, and Tucker Foley were absent from school for a week after the announcement.

Somewhere in that time period (alas, even I, the authoress cannot confirm the exact date), the Fenton parents learned of their supposedly dead son's dark secret. They took the news surprisingly well, or, at least, as well as one can while under a state of duress.

Nothing much of note happened in the succeeding weeks. Christmas and New Year's came and passed without much celebration from the Fentons, the Foleys, and even the Mansons. Ten years after the fact, Jazz would remember huddling in front of the darkened tree in her mother's arms as Sam's Grandma Ida recited an old Jewish prayer.

It was seven months after the initial disappearance that the next monumental moment occurred: the ghosts returned to Amity Park.

But that may be a bit of an overstatement. Not all of them came; in fact, it was only a messenger of Princess Dorathaea's, coming to present Jazz, Sam, and Tucker with awards of bravery in a time of peril. Although this should now go without saying, the three fired off questions about their long lost beloved in rapid succession. However, when interrogated, the messenger became very flustered and red in the face, insisting that he had to return promptly before he was admonished for his dilly-dallying.

The three took this as a sign of hope.

But one year to the day after Danny disappeared, the real adventure began, one that would change Amity Park, the Ghost Zone, and the entire world forever.

And that, my dear readers, is where I begin this story.

**-CatchingWind**

**I do not own Danny Phantom.**


	2. Chapter 1: Discover

_Saturday, July 9th, 2006 _

Seventeen.

He would be seventeen today.

_If he were still here_, Sam Manson thinks to herself, a scowl set upon her face. Those who paid close attention to her would note that nobody had seen her smile for exactly a year.

But what reason did she have to smile in the past year? Her lifelong friend had been unceremoniously, yet harshly yanked out of her life just like _that_, and the only sign that even resembled a connection to him came through Princess Dora's messenger. Why they could be considered brave in a time period that wasn't so perilous so much as depressing, she didn't know.

But she clung onto that small, five-minute interaction with all of her might. The medal, by now, had lost its ethereal glow, but it still hung on her bulletin board, nothing hanging by it within a three-inch radius. It was too precious to be taken lightly.

She walks along familiar streets now, remembering the award in her bedroom. Her only link to Danny, and even then it isn't that definite of a connection. She is very close to giving up hope. After all, one year is a very long time when one's best friend has disappeared without a trace.

But what Sam doesn't know is that I am the storyteller, and she does not know what's coming her way.

Maybe if school were still in session, she would feel less heavy. Throughout the course of her junior year, she'd poured herself into her schoolwork, having nothing else to distract her, and finished the second semester with honor roll-worthy marks. Not the highest in the class, but they were still far above average.

So during the summer, she must try to find something else to turn her focus on, yet with everything comes the enigma of Danny's disappearance. It's because of this that she decides to think like a real cop - begin to analyze what possibly happened and conclude as to where he was now.

Kidnapping was a very real possibility. She wasn't sure of the exact details of Jazz's final encounter with him, but if he'd wandered off on his own, then that left him very susceptible to his enemies.

But with that thought came another issue. Danny's power was unmatchable, maybe rivaled only by Plasmius at full strength and Pariah Dark at his weakest, and it was still steadily improving. He should've been able to defeat whatever enemy came his way, whether it be Skulker or Ember or Technus or even a new prospective fighter.

Vlad was always a possibility, the two-faced conman. However, after being examined by the police twice and subjected to Team Phantom's own interrogation, he seemed suspiciously clean. Sam hates how it doesn't feel like he's involved with the issue; she wants someone to affix the blame to.

Because of the fact that it didn't seem like he could physically be kidnapped, another plausible scenario that she hates to consider is that he left on his own free will. Why on Earth he would do so, she doesn't know.

And yet, she knows deep down in her heart that she does. Some stupid ghost probably threatened him with the death of his family, and his hero complex forced him to give in and be taken as captive. That to her, though absolutely dreadful to think about, was most likely what occurred.

She feels as if she's missing a piece of the puzzle still. Maybe it wasn't one of those things. Maybe it was something she hasn't even considered yet. And another thing: she still had no guesses as to where he is now, if he's even alive (not to say she cared to think that). The thing about being a half-ghost teenager is that he could blend in anywhere on Earth and in the Ghost Zone, especially if he chose to.

Her feet absentmindedly lead her to the skankier part of town, where she knows beggars and drunkards always reside. She knows that she should get out of this area as soon as possible, but she can't bring herself to leave. Something about the darkness of no hope seems to fill this small sector of town, and to her, it feels right. A perfect place to match her outlook on the world.

And so she walks on.

She passes by at least four homeless men, all of whom beg for her graciousness and mercy. She gives them each a ten, fully knowing that it will barely form a dent in her allotment. She hears more voices down an alleyway, and she reaches into her pocket again, preparing to divulge more of her money. However, the voices' words make her stop in her tracks.

"Long live the King!"

"Another glorious year to him!"

"And many more to come!"

The scraggly voices guffaw loudly, and she knows for certain that they are drunk. Their words slur into each other, and the volume wavers multiple times within their sentences. Their minds are obviously affected greatly by the alcohol, because any sober person would know that there is no king in the United States.

She is drawn into the dark alley by curiosity. Just what they seem to be celebrating is a mystery, and she intends to solve at least this one.

But as she creeps further and further in, the back wall seems to be alight with a silvery, dim glow, one that can only come from _a ghost_.

Ignoring the imminent threat, she races forward and peers around the corner of a dumpster ecstatically, her mind pulsing with the hope of a sign from her lost friend.

And sitting there, dark brown bottles in hand and a messy pile of playing cards in front of them, three green entities that somewhat resemble humans toast to an unknown celebration.

She watches on silently as her pupils dilate. She wants to absorb everything she's seeing at once, yet can't. She is reminded of how she reacted when she saw a ghost for a first time, and she has a distinct feeling that this is how that moment went. After all, the last time she'd seen a ghost was what felt like a lifetime ago, when Dorathaea's representative awarded them.

The trio of glowing creatures let their hysterical laughter die down, and they return to their game with wide, frightening grins.

Slowly, so as not to alert them to her presence, Sam reaches into her bag and pulls out the small Fenton Ecto-Pistol that she'd kept for all this time. Then, she jumps out from behind the dumpster and trains it onto them. "Freeze!" she shouts, a bit melodramatically.

They instantly throw their arm-like appendages into the air. "U-uh, sorry, missus. We were just, ah… playing a little game here, right, boys?" the first one says, nervousness evident in his voice. The other two nod vehemently in agreement.

"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about this 'king' of yours. Who is he?" she asks impatiently.

All three of their pupiless red eyes widen, and they begin to stutter. "Eh, what king? We don't have a king," the second one reassures.

"Nice try, but not all of us humans are stupid. Now give me what I want, or I _will_ fire."

The third one frowns. "Why should we be scared of a tiny human girl? Come on, boys, let's get out of here before we get caught." With that, the three of them turn into mist and sink through the dirty ground, the bottles clattering loudly.

Sighing in defeat, she lowers the pistol. And she'd gotten so close to learning just a little something about Danny's disappearance. She is beyond frustrated now.

As she kicks one of the bottles across the alley and watches it shatter into millions of crystal-like shards, she realizes that the third ghost's last comment was quite interesting. Maybe they were fugitives? On the run from Walker?

Or maybe it had to do with this alleged king they were celebrating.

Turning on her heel, the thick soles of her combat boots echo against the brick walls surrounding her. She stuffs her hands into the pockets of her skirt and huffs angrily.

Something was up in the Ghost Zone. She knew it. And usually when something was amiss in that other dimension…

… Danny was at the bottom of it.

**-CatchingWind**

**I do not own Danny Phantom**

**(And my apologies for getting this out so slowly. I unfortunately have a life outside of FF. (: )**


	3. Chapter 2: Locate

_Wednesday, October 30th, 2005_

Dead leaves blew across the way, brushing noisily against the pavement and the obstacles in their path. The bare trees rustled in the cold autumn wind, creating somewhat of an eerie effect. However, the sun was slowly setting in the horizon, casting a golden-orange glow across everything the light touched. The darkening sky was cloudless, adding to the landscape.

For Tucker, the scene was picturesque, yet something within him seemed to be out of place.

He and Valerie walked through the park side by side, so close that their hands constantly brushed against each other and their shoulders were millimeters away from touching. They didn't mind the silence, the contact, the chill; they simply kept each other's company and ambled along in the comfortable quiet.

Tucker wasn't as shaken as Sam or Jazz or the rest of Danny's family when his friend's birthday rolled around with no birthday boy. Of course he was upset (what kind of a friend would he be if he didn't?), but whereas everyone around him coped in visible ways - Sam pushing everyone away, Jazz psychoanalyzing herself, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton putting all of their time into their inventing - he masked his sorrow and tried to move on with his life. He wasn't one to cry or get depressed over the matter. Why bother when really (according to the police), nothing could be done about it? He mostly spent his time muttering to himself (reciting the encoding of the new program he'd just developed, for instance), trying to create idle conversation with others, and attempting to crack jokes about the situation.

That was one of the things he didn't like about his personality. So often when he got anxious or nervous or frightened, he would begin to run his motormouth, which only turned people off and repelled them. He kept confidence in his friends, though; they didn't abandon him when he needed them.

One of the very few advantages to the situation was Valerie. She too was distressed when she learned of Danny's sudden disappearance, and he welcomed her into the little group with a warm embrace. Sure, it took Sam a little while to warm up to her, but she did. Well, as warmed up to someone as she could get.

As weeks passed, he and Valerie grew closer and closer together, and he always absent-mindedly wondered if it would ever blossom into something more, but he didn't take it too seriously. For once in his young life, getting into a relationship wasn't the first thing on his mind.

After the police had shut down Danny's case, marking his status as "presumed dead" with a nauseating finality, Tucker almost went into a state of shock. Once again, he wasn't as brazen as Sam, who ended up harassing the department and demanding that they look into the case further, but he related to her anger and frustration. How could they just write off his best friend for ages as dead with the twist of a wrist and a splotch of ink? It wasn't that simple. There had to be more to it.

That was three weeks ago, and he was struggling to bypass the negative emotions. Valerie could see this as plain as day, and she took sympathy for him. She planned on trying to help him.

"You know that they aren't going to change their minds about it," she began quietly. She wasn't one hundred percent sure about how he would respond, and she didn't want him to lash out at her.

It did take him a fair amount of time to respond, though. "I know," he finally said, sounding defeated. Saying the truth aloud gave it a bigger sense of reality, locking the predicament in and telling him that it wasn't just some dream he would wake up from any day now. "But part of me keeps thinking that there _has_ to be something out there that shows he's still alive."

"I know, Tuck. Me too."

They walked on a little further in silence once more. She bit her lip, because she knew she should tell him. It wasn't right to keep this kind of secret from someone this close, no matter how awkward it would be to share it.

She took a deep breath. "You... should also know that I now believe he always had good intentions. I was just too blinded by anger to see that before."

He gave her a quizzical look. "What do you mean by that?"

She smiled sadly. "It was kind of obvious, wasn't it? Especially after he disappeared at the _exact same time_ as the ghost boy."

Tucker's eyes widened. "W-what on _Earth_ would make you th-think that _Danny_ of all p-people was the _ghost boy_?" he stammered as his voice raised a couple of pitches.

Valerie's smile grew smug. "I never said anything about me accusing him. But you just confirmed it for me."

Tucker was speechless. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, and his throat tightened up. Internally, he scolded himself for being so foolish. He'd all but delivered his friend's darkest secret on a silver platter.

Valerie laughed. "Don't worry yourself too much, Foley. I knew it all along; I just wanted to see how you would respond."

He cleared his throat multiple times. "So, ah… you're taking it well, I see," he said hesitantly.

Her grin faded. "Yeah. But there are some days when I just want to kick myself for being such an idiot. And there are days when I wish he was here so I could kick him for being such an idiot. The worst part is that I always thought that the day Danny Phantom left and never returned would be the best day of my life. I guess I was completely wrong about that."

A minute more or so of silence, and then from Tucker, "He's still out there. I just know it."

"Of course he is. Don't be stupid. He's too strong to be knocked down that easily."

He sighed despite the reassurance. "I just wish we knew where he was. He could be absolutely _anywhere_. He could be right under our noses and we wouldn't have a clue."

She nodded, but didn't say anything.

The sun sank lower and lower behind the horizon, and the atmosphere around them grew dimmer. Valerie grabbed Tucker's hand and stopped him, right in front of the entrance to the park.

"Listen, I've got to get home, or my dad will start to worry," she told him. "But I want you to really hear me when I say this: _we will find him_. Alright? He's okay, and we're gonna find him safe and sound."

With that, she leaned forward, planted a light kiss on his left cheek, and walked out of the park.

As he watched her disappear into the distance, he slowly lifted his hand and placed it on the spot where her lips had been. He wasn't so perturbed about that situation, no. It was more about the thought that had just occurred to him.

Maybe this whole mess wasn't so much about the _where _he was, but the _why_.

And Tucker planned on figuring it out.

**-CatchingWind**

**I don't own Danny Phantom**

**Yes, this story's timeline will jump around. Be on your toes for it.**


	4. Interlude: Reverse

_Thursday, May 18th, 2005_

_Maybe if I had the ability to see into the future like Clockwork, I wouldn't have done the things I did to get here in the first place._

_I know that sounds awfully deep for me. Jazz is more likely to say that kind of thing than me._

_Look, becoming Danny Phantom is possibly the best thing that's ever happened to me, yet it's had some pretty tough consequences along the road for the past year and a half. I promise I'm not all depressed about it, like, "Oh, I hate how things have turned out; I can't live on," or, "I wish I could go back in time and never done that."_

_Well, maybe I'm sort of saying the last one. But I don't want to completely rid myself of my powers (what kind of an idea is that?). All I'm saying is that maybe I would've been more careful with my choices the second time around._

_Like making Vlad an enemy, for instance. Now that my time is running out, I can see how stupid I was for thinking he was just a fruitloop. Not saying that I would've completely given into his wishes, but there had to be some sort of compromise I could've made. Maybe I could've said me and Mom would spend more time with him if he agreed not to waste Dad. Or better yet, brought him to Jazz to get counseled in that whole thing. After all, he's really the only one who can understand me in this world, and maybe my fourteen year old self just couldn't see the powerful ally I had in Vlad._

_Quit talking in past tense, Fenton. It's not like you're dead or something._

_I don't know. I find my almost-sixteen year old self to be a bit more... educated, I guess. I'm better at seeing things that I haven't seen before, things that can help me in the future. _

_Not that the future will matter soon, but it might. Who knows?_

_I won't._

_I have to stop sounding so sad and depressed all the time. I'm not, I promise. I just guess this whole "facing my own mortality" thing really gives my mind that kick in the butt it needs to see where I've been blind._

_(And yes, Sam, if you ever find this. I did have to ask Jazz if "educated" was the right word to use.)_

**-CatchingWind**

**I don't own Danny Phantom.**

**I plan on these writing these little interludes regularly, all of them from Danny's perspective. I want them to help to add - or possibly even detract - from the story (if my words make any sense whatsoever).**


End file.
